Renato Ricci

Renato Ricci (1 June 1896-22 January 1956) was the commandant of the Italian Social Republic's Italian National Republican Guard during World War II.

Biography
Renato Ricci was born in Carrara, Italy to a working-class family on 1 June 1896, and he was a legionary of Gabriele D'Annunzio from 1919 to 1920. He was arrested in Sarzana in 1920, and a failed attempt by fellow fascists to liberate him became a propaganda success. In 1924, Ricci supported a 40-day strike by quarry workers, and he served as the leader of the Carrara squad of the Blackshirts. Ricci later became the leader of the National Fascist Party's youth wing, and he served as Benito Mussolini's Minister of Corporations. He became one of the leading Nazi sympathizers in the fascist government, and he fled to Nazi Germany in 1943 after Mussolini was deposed and imprisoned; he met with Otto Skorzeny to arrange for Mussolini's rescue. With Nazi support, Ricci and Alessandro Pavolini created the Italian National Republican Guard paramilitary, and he was involved with putting down the Italian Resistance. After World War II's end, a resistance tribuanl found that the National Republican Guard had simply been an internal police force, and he was acquitted of any wrongdoing. He died in Rome in 1956.